Is Fred Wilpon of the Mets a bad owner, or just brutally honest?

Associated PressIn this Feb. 19, 2011, file photo, New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, left, talks with manager Terry Collins during spring training baseball in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Wilpon had sharp words for the All-Stars and his teetering team in a newly released profile in "The New Yorker." He made the comments during the Mets' 4-3 loss to Houston on April 20.

Wilpon is an easy target. The Mets are awful, and the team is in a state of near financial ruin as a result of dealings with Bernie Madoff.

In the New Yorker piece, Wilpon makes some questionable comments about Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and David Wright — comments that are only questionable due to the fact that he's the owner of the team. Conventional wisdom suggests that an owner should be lavishing his players with praise because that's how corporate America works.

Baseball is not typical corporate America though. The players who have garnered the most attention are all high profile, and high paid players. Wilpon, in spite of all the harsh criticism levied at him, was correct in what he said about all three players.

Jose Reyes:
We don't know for sure that Jose Reyes won't get Carl Crawford money, as Wilpon states in the New Yorker. Yet even a casual baseball fan could look at the resumes of Crawford and Reyes and determine that Reyes is not deserving of that type of contract. Injuries, inconsistency and some weak numbers keep Reyes out of the Crawford category.

Carlos Beltran:
Wilpon also levies criticism at Carlos Beltran, the Mets' highest-paid hitter who is in the final year of a seven-year, $119 million dollar contract.

“He’s sixty-five to seventy per cent of what he was,” is the Wilpon quote that's getting all the attention.

Lost in this is that in the same paragraph, Wilpon says, “We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series,” — referring to himself.

David Wright:
Wilpon's final critique is directed at third baseman David Wright, who is the Mets' best position player.

Wilpon says, "A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar."

Wilpon's comments have sparked outrage but they're all true statements. Reyes probably won't get the money that Crawford got. Beltran is not and has not been the player he was in 2004. The "one series" Wilpon refers to is the 2004 NLCS in which he hit a playoff-record eight home runs. Wilpon even accepts the blame for this miscalculation by calling himself a "schmuck."

Finally, David Wright is not a superstar. He still could become one: he's got the ability, the stage and the pedigree to do it. To this point, he's been exactly what Wilpon called him — a very good player.

I'm not here to defend Fred Wilpon, but these comments are not the reason the Mets are in the mess they're in. Wilpon has been a mediocre owner. He's presided over bad trades, bad free-agent signings, and, until very recently, he was hesitant to commit to a system-wide philosophy that teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Athletics, Rangers, and Rays have utilized to continually pump out home-grown talent.

The Mets have many problems and their owner Fred Wilpon has a degree of responsibility for many of them. These problems are far more complex then Wilpon making a few critical (but true) remarks about Mets players.